Mummy decided to go somewhere different on a lazy Sunday morning (instead of the usual Botanic Gardens). Was telling Daddy to go the Bt Timah Saddle Club but we landed up at Horsecity (near the Turf City) instead - Daddy, as usual, was confident that he knows the place by heart. Nonetheless, we thought the place looked quaint and decided to stay on. We chanced upon this bistro called Picotin and decided to have our breakfast there. Daddy's eyeballs nearly popped up when we ordered the breakfast (yes, the English breakfast consisting of toast bread, eggs, mushroom ragout, baked beans, bacon, sausages, orange juice and tea) cost $20 ++. Simple but nice ambience. They have a backgarden which was tranquil and beautifully done up (great for a lazy Sunday morning breakfast) and Mummy made a mental note to eat there (if we ever go there again).

But the best part was the pony ride!! Cost just $2 for one round (still affordable by Daddy's standard). Natie seemed to enjoy the ride but Daddy neared got kicked by the pony (not really the pony's fault coz it was trying to avoid its own poo that piled up along the sandy track - we've got a video to prove)...
However, Daddy said the ride was too dangerous (for both him and Natie) and if Natie were to go again, he said that Mummy will accompany...hmmmm....

Vroom Vroom - Natie starting young to learn driving



Jie Jie adjusting Natie's helmet



All ready - Get set, Go!



Up on the pony



Yippee!!

We are checking out of HK Disneyland Hotel and going to mainland HK. Mummy got some serious shopping plans initially but was really tired after those fun-filled days at Disneyland. We then checked in to Langham Pl Hotel (mummy's fave HK hotel)

Zzzzz...................................really tired....

Can't believe it....the Langham Pl mall is 13 storey! Can't finish...went to H&M but it's mainly winter wear. ;-( It's really a shopping paradise in HK. There are many heeren like shopping complexes and the food is great too. The cosmetics is quite cheap (SKII stuff is almost half the price in HK!) but alas...din manage to buy much stuff.

As we din want to travel ard in public transport, Mummy also arranged for a planned trip (yes...with Splendid Tours Agency from HK)to some of the places (which u wld not go on your own) in HK.

Check out the Itinerary:

CHUK LAM SIM YUEN
An impressive Buddhist monastery nestled in the hills in quiet dignity is home to three enormous "Precious Buddha" statues and other colourful religious paraphernalia.

Inside the monastery, we let Natie throw a coin into the pond...for good luck.

KAM TIN WALLED VILLAGE

Built 700 years ago by the Tang clan, the original walls remain standing with its female villagers still dressed in traditional costumes for daily activities in modern Hong Kong.

O/s the walled village. Gave $2 to take photos with these ladies. They are very old but still in good health. The tour guide was quite funny...she said that the ladies here outlive the men coz they worked very hard and thus, they are stronger. Whereas the men were lazy and did not do any chores...so they die faster.

LOK MA CHAU
The vista stretches from the farmlands bordering Shenzhen River to the modern skyline of Shenzhen City in the distance. (There will be a 5-minute walk to the lookout point.)

Ok. Mummy regretted like hell...coz we had to climb uphill!!! When we were at the top, poor mummy was panting away...trying to catch her breath...don't think the view was worth it.

WISHING TREE
It used to be a camphor tree where a tablet for enshrining and worshipping Pak Kung was placed. Today, it attracts not only local villagers but also overseas visitors flock to there to make their wishes.

Dragon/Phoenix...Toilet!!!

This is the famous wishing tree..too bad we can't throw our oranges and wishes onto the tree branches. Coz the tree branch broke in early 2000 due to overload and killed some people. So they had to stop people from throwing and instead set a board for people to hang their wishes.

Guess which one is the wish made by Mummy?

KAISER ESTATE
Home of factory outlets. We'll stop by the workshop of a renowned jewellery factory to witness the delicate process of handcrafting gemstones and precious metals. This place supposedly designs and supplies jewellery to TSL - a Singapore jewellery shop for which we've never heard of. Think wld prefer to buy from Citigems and SK Jewellery....Prices seem to be more attractive and design seemed to be nicer. Hee

Disneyland is simply THE happiest place on earth. It's strange that whenever mummy steps into this place, she feels so excited! It's like reliving childhood all over again! We guess we will bring Natie back to Disneyland when she's slightly older. Already, she's enjoying the rides! Mummy and Daddy tho ...were enjoying the shopping! There's so much stuff (and so little money to spend)...haha


Check out the slide show

After months of procrastination...Mummy gonna post some photos of the HK trip that we went on 16 Dec 07. We all enjoyed the trip (altho daddy was complaining about having to lug luggage ard). Well, at least mummy learnt a lesson on planning for trips in future (and yes...mummy planned for a club med trip to bali...daddy said firmly that he will not get out of club med this time round...well...we'll see about that)...muahhaa!

Santa darling...any presents for our sweetie?



Yes...we've landed...mummy didn't take any photos on the aeroplane...we went direct to the disneyland hollywood hotel.

Check out the slippers!! When we went to the room, the first thing we did was to pass her "precious" bolster. Ok...with that, we have to bath and go straight to sleep...we've got a long day tomorrow...yup...at DisneyLand!!

Here's a preview of our lil sweetie for the first series of photoshoot with Studio Loft.

Daddy suggested to go Pasir Ris Park coz we were near Tampines. Mummy tot it was an ultra ulu place coz it's really at the very eastern part of Singapore. But when we went there, we immediately loved the place...the air is fresher, not as crowded as East Coast (tho they don't have much facilities /eateries) but here, you can enjoy the sea breeze, see the boats floating by and gaze at the faraway kelongs...very rustic ambience. And best of all, we were pleasantly surprised when we saw this particular family playing with bubbles. Their bubbles must be of superior quality ...not the usual type which u buy from the ma-ma shop. Why we said that? Coz the bubbles are big and can hold its shape well. When the kiddo put the bubble wand against the strong wind, so many bubbles came out...well...i guess u know who's the most excited? Natie of coz! Well...kpo mummy here...we went to ask them where they got their bubbles so that we can buy it for our lil sweetie. U can be sure we'll be back at Pasir Ris again!!

Mummy is sooo excited coz Natie is attending her first Baby's Prom! What's that? It's actually a kiddie concert organised by SSO. When we first entered the lobby, there was balloon sculpturing. Natie was initially shy but soon asked the balloonist for a teddy bear. Hehe. Afterwhich we proceeded to the concert. There were so many babies and toddlers! The emcee for the day was an ang-moh clown - the conductor who introduced the various orchestra instruments to the kids there. They played some songs and towards the end, Natie also went on stage to see the instruments (think she likes the french horn the most). ;-)

OooO....Mummy and Daddy brought Natie to the trial class at Pat's Schoolhouse - D'Story Club on Saturday. We went to the Halifax branch before but did not particularly like it. We decided to give the school another chance by going to another branch. Mummy personally felt that the class was quite good.

The premise was quite big and comes with an activity room, music room, mini wading pool (for waterplay), a mini playground (with slides/trikes) and a sandpit (for sandplay). The theme of the day was "Caterpillar and Butterfly". The moment we stepped into the class and saw the teacher, we had good vibes. The teacher, Ms Phoebe, was very engaging.

We started with a story session using Eric Carle's The Hungry Caterpillar. Next we proceeded to do some art work, followed by snack time (yup...doing an edible caterpillar!). Thereafter, we went for sand play before settling down with some music moments (yes! butterfly songs!). The best thing of all was the the trial class was urhmm...free...keke...Think we wanna sign up coz Natie seemed to enjoy the class. Ms Phoebe also thought that Natie seemed to like music a lot (in her words, Natie has the "groove"). We were recommended to bring her for the Fastrac Music Class meant for 2 years old and above...Hmmm...Mummy may bring Natie for that trial class. Hee...

Meanwhile, here are some of the pix:

1) The Hungry Caterpillar - Natie's first artwork (with help from Mummy)



2) The Edible Caterpillar...Yummy!



3) Sand Play Time!



4) Music Time with Bells!



5) Fly Fly Butterfly!

Recently, a few friends commented that Natie looks like Daddy. Gong Gong and Po Po beg to differ and produced Mummy's baby photos to show that Natie looks more like Mummy. Hee. To put a rest to all the speculation, Mummy went to do a Look-Alike Meter...Guess what's the result?

Time to take charge of how much my Natie has grown. She has learnt how to make the different animal sounds for the various animals (e.g. cow, goat, sheep, cat, dog, horse). She can now speak quite a lot of words and knows the different parts of her body (E.g. Neck, Thumb, Fingers, Toes, etc) . Lately the dear grandparents taught her how to kill cockroach (by stamping her feet) *faint*. She finds these 2 words the most useful "Gai Gai" and "There!" (To direct people to bring her to the place she wants). Nowadays Mummy tries to teach her songs by singing to her (in not the best of voice). Think her favourite song is now "Incy Wincy Spider". That one...Mummy played the song to her through this "Wheels on the Bus" series (Courtesy of Auntie Cecilia)...woah man...she loves it and can sit through 15 mins of the show! Looks like Mummy will go buy more of the DVDs for her to watch!

Oooo....Natie came down with fever...38.3 degrees celcius...no wonder for the past few days, she was complaining about head and toes "pain pain"...mabbe she got body ache. Poor gal...It's all the MMR jab fault...Natie went to take the jab a week ago and Mummy was praying that she wld not get fever...but luckily the fever lasted for only 1 day....now she's back to her cheery self! Hurray!

Actually it's Mummy's fault...always try to do last-minute booking of cake from The Patissier...end up she could not get the cake she wanted for gong-gong and popo''s wedding anniversary. But...Mummy went to bake cupcakes for them instead! Mmmm...it doesn't look too bad but taste a tad too sweet. Luckily Mummy improvised and added some strawberries(sour) to complement the sweet vanilla cupcakes - Recipe from Shermay's Cooking School (mmmm...they were quite yummy and Natie even learnt to say "Cupcake" in order to eat it...haha)

Vanilla cupcakes with strawberry filling in the centre:



Wedding Anniversary Cupcakes!

Heee! Natie just came back from her trip to Sentosa! We stayed at Siloso Beach Resort with Uncle Shark and Auntie Swee Lin. Mummy booked a veri nice sea-view room (we requested to change when the hotel gave us an "exhaust view" room). The hotel was quite boutique-like but it could only be rated as 4-star (relative to The Sentosa Resort & Spa). Hotel room was small...Bathroom was mini too [we had to improvise to bath Natie ;-(]

We brought Natie around Sentosa...Went to the Dolphin Lagoon but Natie was asleep almost throughout the entire performance. Luckily she woke up at the tailend...at least she managed to see some dolphins.

Afterwhich, we brought her to the Underwater World...she was sooooo fascinated by the seacreatures. We think she really enjoyed herself there!

Wonder who's Uncle Shark? It's Uncle Weiliang! keke...We gave him that nickname becoz he acted as a shark to play with Natie in the swimming pool (Natie's wary eyes never left him...haha). Ooo...the swimming pool was veri cold that day as it rained. We wanted to bring Natie to play the waterslide but it was too fast and furious for Natie...in the end...Daddy and Uncle Shark went for the slide instead.

We also brought Natie to the beach for sandplay. She was afraid of the water and wouldn't go near it. As for the sand, she tried her very best to walk on it. Think her fave activity was excavating the sand...hehe. We also played Beach Ball with her!

As for her meals, we had a hard time. Think Natie still prefers Gong-Gong's porridge. After the trip, Po Po commented that she lost a lot of weight. ;-(

But overall, it was quite an enjoyable trip.

Mummy went for a cupcake workshop by Shermay Cooking School with Karen Mummy. We had a fun time learning how to bake and decorate cupcakes! Our first attempt is not realli good lar...need more practice.



Wonder whether we would be so successful baking the cupcakes on our own....

Woah! Mummy was in for a veri pleasant surprise! Natie had won 3rd prize in a photo contest by Johnson's & Johnson's! For that, she can have 3 studio sessions, fully sponsored by Studioloft, as well as a J & J Hamper! Mummy and Daddy were overjoyed (as we need not spend more money on taking photos...;-p)

Wuhoo! Finally another May Mummies' Gathering! Natie got to see all her May friends...and it was such a ruckus!

After hearing many good reviews on Gymboree, Mummy decided to bring Natie to try out! The gymboree that we tried out was at Camden Medical Centre. It was relocated from Tanglin Mall...and seems rather small. When we reached there, there was one other absolutely sweet Caucasian baby (called "Fleur") and her mummy. Natie was a bit apprehensive at exploring the equipment but soon began to overcome her shyness and started to crawl. She went through the tunnels, zoom down the slides (with the help of daddy , of coz) and played the ball with Fleur. Think she kinda of enjoy herself but ultimately we did not sign up ...coz daddy says she can play for free at the usual HDB playground (dah!)

It has been a long awaited gathering for the May mummies...even tho it's only among a few of us but hey! we (and our lil babes) all enjoyed it a lot. All the little babes were busy showing their walking power and it's such a joy watching our lil ones "talking" to each other (in a language only they knew).



Lil Walkers & Munch Time!



Natie met up with her best fren, Claris (who is born on the same day as her!) and oooo....both sweeties look absolutely adorable together!



Now mummy is contemplating whether to buy a picnic mat ;-)

Finally! We get to go overseas! So excited! Even thought it's just a short trip to Bintan (a 1 hr ferry ride)...we are really thrilled, esp Daddy (it's family trip together with ma3-ma3, yeye, uncle louis, auntie cecilia and cousin celeste/lucas.)

Ferry Ride: The trip to Bintan was so bumpy that all of us felt nauseous. Daddy was a hero...he tried to fill the white cards for 5 of us (including ma3-ma3 and yeye) during the ferry ride and ended up wanting to puke...Natie also felt terrible and cried but in the end, we soothe her to sleep.

Bintan Resort: A breath of fresh air! Our room oversee the sea...wonderful view!



Food: Poor Natie...gotta bear with the instant cereal and instant brown porridge. We were quite sure that she will gulp down the porridge (in big amts) prepared by gong-gong when she reached home the tomorrow. Think she is a picky eater now...she spits out the tasteless watermelon at the resort restaurant...oh god! Food at the hotel was sure expensive. $15 for a plate of chicken rice (yes...they charge Singapore dollars). Thank god, Uncle Louis got lobang to get cheap and good food at the Bintan town. The trip out to the town was definitely like a thrill ride. The roads had no streetlamps and the driver was driving like a formula one driver...Daddy was a bit scared sitting at the front seat...hiak hiak hiak

Natalie's First Swim - Oh yes...mummy specially bot a thermal wetsuit for her first swim (got it from Auntie Ivy...). Somehow Natie doesn't like the float and very much prefers swimming F&E in the pool...keke...hai...looks like we have to keep the float for now...till she's older.

Ferry ride back: alamak...natie did her "big business"...it was a challenge changing her diaper in a small toilet cubicle but hey! we did it! *so proud* =p

It was truly a memorable trip but hor, we have to rethink about our Aussie trip at the end of the year. Mummy shudder when she thinks about the logistics involved....keke